# webtrees Email Newsletter

A [webtrees](https://www.webtrees.net/) 2.2+ custom module that sends recurring
email newsletters with:

- **Upcoming birthdays** of still-living individuals (formatted as ordinal
  age — *"45th birthday"* / *"45. Geburtstag"*).
- **Upcoming marriage anniversaries** of intact couples (admin toggle, per
  tree). Marriages with a divorce or annulment fact are excluded
  automatically.
- **Historical events** — births and deaths of deceased individuals whose
  anniversary falls in the upcoming window.

The look-ahead window and the send cadence are the same number: one
"every N days" setting (default 14) drives both the cron interval and how
far each issue looks ahead. Issues with nothing to report are silently
skipped.

Each recipient gets a per-recipient render — language, relationship
labels, detail filter, cadence, and personalisation tokens are all
resolved against *their* webtrees account.

## Highlights

- **Editorial layout** with embedded circular avatars, a left-side
  timeline rail, and event-type icons (birth / death / marriage).
- **BockenTheme light-mode skin** — Open Sans, cream background, Nord
  accent palette. The newsletter and the website read as one product.
- **Per-recipient localisation** — German for users whose webtrees
  language starts with `de`, English otherwise. Subject line, body,
  date strings, and (optionally) a custom subject prefix are all
  localised. Subject dates use `IntlDateFormatter` for the recipient's
  locale.
- **Per-recipient relationship labels** — *"your mother"*, *"4th great-
  grandfather"*, *"first cousin twice removed"*. Uses webtrees' own
  `RelationshipService` so the labels match the site.
- **Kin-distance detail filter** — close family get the full card
  (avatar + timeline + icon); distant kin appear as a single-line
  bullet at the foot of each section. The "distance" radius is an
  admin setting (default 3); spouses inherit their partner's distance;
  recipients with no linked tree record always see the full detailed
  view.
- **Per-recipient cadence** — each subscriber can pick weekly,
  biweekly, monthly, every-two-months, quarterly, or "use site
  default" on their `/my-account/{tree}` page.
- **One-shot intro paragraph** — admins can attach a Markdown intro
  (bilingual, EN/DE) to the next issue. Supports
  `{{first_name}}`, `{{last_name}}`, `{{username}}`, `{{email}}`
  personalisation tokens. Rendered alongside the tree-contact user's
  avatar as an editorial column. Cleared automatically after a
  successful send.
- **Cron-only dispatch** — the "is it due?" decision is made server-
  side against stored timestamps. Calling the trigger more often than
  the cadence is harmless and idempotent.

## Requirements

- webtrees ≥ 2.2.0
- PHP ≥ 8.2 with `ext-intl` (for locale-aware subject dates) and
  either `ext-imagick` or `ext-gd` (for avatar resizing — falls back
  to original-size embeds if neither is present).
- A working SMTP / sendmail configuration in *Control panel → Sending
  email*. This module reuses webtrees' standard mailer and signs with
  the site's DKIM keys if configured.
- An external scheduler on the host (system `cron`, `systemd` timer,
  Kubernetes `CronJob`, …) that can fire an HTTP request at a fixed
  interval. **Newsletter dispatch never runs on visitor page loads.**

## Installation

1. Copy this directory into the webtrees `modules_v4/` folder, renaming
   it to `email_newsletter`:

   ```sh
   cp -r webtrees_email_newsletter /var/www/webtrees/modules_v4/email_newsletter
   ```

2. In the webtrees control panel, go to *Modules → All modules* and
   enable **Email Newsletter**.

3. Open *Control panel → Modules → Email Newsletter → Preferences*
   and, for each tree:

   - Tick *Enable newsletter for this tree*.
   - Set the send-cadence (default 14 days). This same number is the
     look-ahead window for the next issue.
   - Toggle *Include marriage anniversaries* if desired.
   - Set *Detailed view distance* (default 3). Lower values produce a
     terser email focused tightly on close kin.
   - Optional: set per-locale *Subject prefix* and a *Generic*
     fallback (e.g. `[Bocken family] `).
   - Optional: tick existing webtrees users in *Subscribed users* to
     subscribe them. Users can still adjust their own subscription
     and cadence on `/my-account/{tree}`.
   - Optional: add external (non-user) addresses in *Extra recipient
     email addresses*.

4. Copy the **Cron URL** at the bottom and wire it into your scheduler
   (see below).

## Setting up the scheduler

> **Why no built-in scheduler?** PHP has no daemon, and frameworks
> like Laravel rely on a once-per-minute system cron to fire their
> internal scheduler. This module follows the same convention: the
> host OS owns the timer, the module owns the "is it actually due?"
> decision.

### System cron

```cron
# Run every 15 minutes. The module itself decides whether sending is due.
*/15 * * * *  curl -fsS --max-time 60 'https://example.com/module/_email_newsletter_/Cron?token=YOUR_TOKEN' > /dev/null
```

### systemd timer

`/etc/systemd/system/webtrees-newsletter.service`:

```ini
[Unit]
Description=webtrees newsletter trigger

[Service]
Type=oneshot
ExecStart=/usr/bin/curl -fsS --max-time 60 "https://example.com/module/_email_newsletter_/Cron?token=YOUR_TOKEN"
```

`/etc/systemd/system/webtrees-newsletter.timer`:

```ini
[Unit]
Description=Trigger webtrees newsletter dispatch

[Timer]
OnCalendar=*-*-* *:00/15
Persistent=true

[Install]
WantedBy=timers.target
```

Then `systemctl enable --now webtrees-newsletter.timer`.

### Forcing a one-off send

The admin **Preferences** page has a *Send now* button for testing.
For an unattended forced send (bypassing the per-recipient "is it
due?" check), append `&force=1` to the cron URL.

## Subscribers

Three sources, combined and de-duplicated by email:

1. **Webtrees users** who opt in themselves via the per-tree
   *Newsletter subscription* menu entry on `/my-account/{tree}` —
   visible only to logged-in users on trees where the module is
   enabled.
2. **Webtrees users** an admin subscribes from the preferences page.
3. **External addresses** the admin lists in *Extra recipient email
   addresses*.

Only **approved and email-verified** webtrees accounts will receive
the newsletter. External addresses always receive on every run
(they have no per-user cadence timer).

## Sender identity

To match webtrees' own convention for system-generated email
(registration, password resets, "new version available"), the
`From:` header is **SiteUser** — *Control panel → Sending email →
Sender name / Sender email* (`SMTP_FROM_NAME` / `SMTP_DISP_NAME`).
The tree's contact user becomes the `Reply-To:`, so replies still
reach a human admin.

If `SMTP_FROM_NAME` isn't set the dispatcher falls back to the tree
contact for `From:` as well, so the message always has a valid
sender envelope.

## Privacy

The dispatch service does not impersonate a webtrees user, so it
sees the tree from the **visitor** access level. Records and facts
that your tree settings hide from visitors will be omitted from the
newsletter even if a recipient has higher in-app access. This is
the safest default for an outbound email — if you need to expose
more information, relax the tree's visitor-access settings or
hand-curate the *Extra recipient* list.

## License

AGPL-3.0-or-later. See `LICENSE` for the full text.